Free Money Party

Back in my Libertarian Party days I heard a
common lament from activists: “We struggle because we
don’t promise to give out free money like the major
parties…” Well, now that I have left the LP and been
corrupted by pragmatism and concern for the poor, this gives me an
idea: How about Free Money Party!

Bwahahahahaha!

Imagine the outreach mailings: business sized envelopes with
lurid promises of free money – that happen to be true! The
government already gives out trillions of dollars. Why not just
give it away for free instead of making people fill out forms or
grovel to social workers? “Freedom and Free Money!”
would make a nice slogan.

Yes, I am describing a single-issue party, a party to carry the
citizen
dividend idea to the masses. See my welfare
series for why this is a good idea, or read Charles Murray’s
In Our Hands.

This single issue could potentially unite a large and diverse
coalition:

Environmentalists who want a carbon
tax but want to keep things progressive

Minority activists who want reparations for past
injustices

Racists who want to stop subsidizing low wage immigrants

Yes, we are talking about a truly diverse coalition, a motley
crew on par with the Democrats of yore! But with only one core
issue – replacing our complex system of welfare programs and
tax expenditures with a citizen dividend – we could still
keep platform debates manageable.

In a sense I have already tested the marketing the idea to the
masses. I have another site, freemoneyforall.org, that
pitches this idea, minus the political party to make it happen. My
evil plan was to promote the citizen dividend concept while making
money with the get rich quick ads that could be served on a free
money themed site. ‘Twas quite lucrative when I was near the
top of the search pages, but a bit too evil: most of the people
coming to the site were desperately poor, and mostly stupid. I
removed the ads, and have let the site rust.

But as a political party portal, the site could be revived and
simplified. Reaching the dumb and desperate is difficult for a low
budget political party. On search traffic alone the site was
getting over a thousand unique hits per day. Hide the wonk-friendly
details and economics behind pages with simple diagrams and videos,
and the party markets itself.

Yes, this is a cynical and sleazy approach to building a
political party, but it is also a good cause. Reducing poverty by
90% is more moral than slavishly selling the Zero Aggression
Principle. And a Free Money Party would likely increase liberty
more than the Libertarian Party will (unless Johnson/Weld actually
win in 2016). When the poor have a marginal incentive to work, the
argument for the evil Drug War weakens substantially.

The Basic Branding Issues

Free Money begins with an F, which should provide no confusion
with any other third party or independent campaign.

The Sign of the Dollar could be the party logo. (And Ayn Rand
spinning in her grave would provide a low pollution energy
source!)

But we do have a problem with what to call members of the
party. Free Monetizers? Free Money Advocates? A bit of a mouthful.
And Free Money is two words; seems outside the U.S. tradition.
However, let us remember that the Republican Party grew out of the
Free Soil Party, another two-word party name. And you cannot get
much worse than Free Soiler…

Read the Book

People wanted an ebook version of the Plan here on this site. So I started cleaning
up, reformatting, and adding a huge amount of content. The book is about three
times the length of the free online version -- and easier to read.

CAPITALISM WARNING! Many of the links to Amazon.com are evil affiliate links!
If you click the links and buy the enlightening and delightful products I recommend, I make a small
commission. So click and shop! And buy yourself something expensive like a big screen
television while you are at it. I could
use the dough.